1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tire noise reduction device and a pneumatic tire provided with the tire noise reduction device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a tire noise reduction device allowing rapid and reliable puncture-repair of a punctured pneumatic tire provided with a sound absorbing member on the inner surface of a tread portion of the tire and relates to a pneumatic tire provided with the tire noise reduction device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a pneumatic tire, a resonant sound is caused during travel because of vibration of the air in the cavity of the tire. It is known that the resonant sound caused in the cavity causes discomfort to people as noise. Conventionally, techniques have been known in which a sound absorbing member made of a porous material is arranged on the inner surface of a tread portion of a tire in order to reduce the cavity resonance noise generated in the cavity of the tire. (For example, refer to Japanese patent application Kokai publication Nos. 2006-224928 and 2007-237962.)
Meanwhile, as a method for repairing a tire having a through-hole in a tread portion thereof formed when the tire runs over a nail or the like during travel, a method has been implemented in which a puncture repair liquid is injected through an air pressure valve and the repair liquid is caused to flow into the through-hole with the action of air pressure to thereby seal the through-hole.
However, in the tire with the sound absorbing member arranged on the inner surface of the tread portion described above, a sound absorbing member 2 impedes the flow of a repair liquid 6 into a through-hole A as shown in FIG. 6. Accordingly, there arises a problem in that smooth puncture repair operation cannot be performed. Here, consider a case where the tip of a foreign matter such as a nail B does not penetrate to the inner peripheral surface of the sound absorbing member 2 as shown in FIG. 6, and a case where, even though the nail B penetrates to the inner peripheral surface of the sound absorbing member 2, the injected repair liquid 6 does not flow into the through-hole in the inner peripheral surface of the sound absorbing member 2. Especially in these cases, although the repair liquid 6 is impregnated into a porous part of the sound absorbing member 2, the repair liquid 6 does not readily flow into the through-hole A, thereby causing a problem in that repair operation of the puncture hole takes time.